Christine Ziegler – författare

Aging represents a physiological and per se non-pathological and multifactorial process involving a set of key genes and mechanisms being triggered by different endogenous and exogenous factors. Since aging is a major risk factor in connection with a variety of human disorders, it is increasingly becoming a central topic in biochemical and medical research. The plethora of theories on aging – some of which have been discussed for decades – are neither isolated nor contradictory but instead can be connected in a network of pathways and processes at the cellular and molecular levels. This book summarizes the most prominent and important approaches, focusing on telomeres, DNA damage and oxidative stress as well as on the possible role of nutrition, the interplay between genes and environment (epigenetics) and intracellular protein homeostasis and introduces some genes that have actually extended life spans in animal models. Linking these different determinants of aging with disease, this volume aims to reveal their multiple interdependencies. We see that there is no single “perfect” theory of aging and that instead it is possible to define what the authors call the molecular aging matrix of the cell. A better knowledge of its key mechanisms and the mutual connections between its components will lead to a better understanding of age-associated disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

This book provides a molecular view of membrane transport by means of numerous biochemical and biophysical techniques. The rapidly growing numbers of atomic structures of transporters in different conformations and the constant progress in bioinformatics have recently added deeper insights. The unifying mechanism of energized solute transport across membranes is assumed to consist of the conformational cycling of a carrier protein to provide access to substrate binding sites from either side of a cellular membrane. Due to the central role of active membrane transport there is considerable interest in deciphering the principles of one of the most fundamental processes in nature: the alternating access mechanism. This book brings together particularly significant structure-function studies on a variety of carrier systems from different transporter families: Glutamate symporters, LeuT-like fold transporters, MFS transporters and SMR (RND) exporters, as well as ABC-type importers. The selected examples impressively demonstrate how the combination of functional analysis, crystallography, investigation of dynamics and computational studies has made it possible to create a conclusive picture or more precisely, “a molecular movie”. Although we are still far from a complete molecular description of the alternating access mechanism, remarkable progress has been made from static snapshots towards membrane transport dynamics.

Dieses Buch führt in die wichtigsten Theorien des Alterns ein; es konzentriert sich auf Telomere, DNA-Schädigung, oxidativen Stress, die Rolle der Nährstoffversorgung bzw. -erkennung, das Zusammenspiel von Genen und Umwelt (Epigenetik) und die Proteinhomöostase und stellt einige Gene vor, die die Lebensdauer in Modellorganismen zu verändern in der Lage sind. Indem es die verschiedenen das Altern bestimmenden Faktoren mit Erkrankungen des Menschen verknüpft, sucht das Buch ihre vielfältigen Wechselbeziehungen und Abhängigkeiten aufzuzeigen und zu einer molekularen Matrix des Alterns zusammenzuführen.

Von diesem Buch werden alle profitieren, die sich einen profunden Überblick über die Mechanismen der Zellalterung und ihre Verknüpfung mit altersassoziierten Erkrankungen des Menschen verschaffen wollen.